Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Changed Her Story
June Park waited outside the clinic in a dented pickup, both hands locked around the steering wheel. Her hair had gone gray at the temples. Marcus remembered a young corporal who could fix a broken radio with a paper clip. This woman looked older than the four years they'd lost.
"You told them I sent Danny to his death," he said through her open window.
"I know."
"You watched them take my career."
"I know that too." Her voice shook. "Rusk threatened to charge me with disobeying orders. I was twenty-three. I signed the statement he put in front of me."
Marcus wanted to walk away. He pictured Danny's wife answering the door in the middle of the night. He pictured Ruby, barely eight then, asking when Daddy was coming home.
"Why talk now?" he asked.
June pointed toward the distant range. "They've brought Lantern back. New name, same decision engine. Northgate wants a contract extension, and Rusk needs a perfect demonstration."
"You have proof?"
"Part of it. The radio backup was never properly wiped. I kept a copy of the dispatch audio, but the full route logs are locked inside an archive case Northgate recovered after the blast. They're moving it through here tonight."
"Why would they bring it here?"
"To compare the old system with the new one. And to make sure nobody else can compare them."
June handed him a faded photograph: Danny grinning beside Viper, a little girl on Danny's shoulders. Across the back Danny had written, ALL OF US GET HOME.
Marcus swallowed. "Ruby still has a father in that picture."
"She deserves the truth outside of it."
Across the lot, a man leaned against a Northgate SUV with a phone raised to his ear. The lens of its camera pointed straight at them.
May you like
June's face emptied. "I told you to come alone."
The man smiled, snapped a picture, and drove away.
